


Crack A Few Nuts

by orphan_account



Series: Selections From StarcoWeek2 [4]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: AU of choice, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/M, Ho ho holy crap, Starcoweek2 Day 6, The Nutcracker, go big or go home, hehehehe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-23 16:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8333908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A Grand Finale to my Starcoweek2 offeringsThe Nutcracker AU Based on both the Ballet and the original tale from E. T. A. Hoffman.Hard Nuts, Mean Princesses, Dreams, Ship Cats, Old Salty Seadogs who give the weirdest presents. Janna. It's all here.





	1. The Tale of the Hard Nut

**Author's Note:**

> Hard nuts? *insert Lenny face*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It all starts with a fairy tale.

Once upon a time.

Not so long ago, but long enough.

There was a tiny kingdom floating in the midst of a vast vast sea.

Mewni it was called, thought I couldn't tell you why.

Now it was after a time, a princess was born to the king and queen.

Astra Celesta Beck Stellalune Johansson Butterfly.

Mostly though, she was just Star.

Princess Star was a sweet little thing, already quite beautiful for a baby. Her beauty was heralded throughout the land.

Eyes that sparkled like the loveliest azure stones, hair as golden and fine as corn silk. Skin seemingly woven of lily-white and rose-red, with two of the Butterfly birth marks doting each cheek, hearts. A good sign to all the people that she was to be as beautiful inside as she was outwardly.

Most fascinating however, was the princess's teeth. Born with two sharply pointed pearly white rows, which she used to bite the royal advisor Sir Glossaryck not four hours after her birth. Another sign, people interpreted, that she would be spirited and witty.

The king rejoiced, he danced a jig and all his council with him, and much of the kingdom as well. The queen however showed a quiet reserve, she was proud and quite happy of the blessed heir but she seemed perturbed by something. No one could quite decipher what it was.

It had been several months before the princess's birth when the king had held a banquet, spreading the news to his allies, friends, advisors, and nobles of his soon to be fatherhood. He had asked very sweetly of his wife a small request.

"My dear, I know your condition warrants much rest and relaxation but may I ask that you please participate in the making of the corn? You have such a way with it, and no corn would taste quite as fine if made by any other. However, if you cannot please just tell me."

The queen however was very happy to help prepare the corn for the feast, for she did concede she had a certain speciality in the cooking of the dish that added quite the flavor. A secret if you will, passed down from royalty. and what better way to celebrate the coming birth of a royal Mewnian heir than with royal Mewnian corn?

So she set to work with the kitchen staff and time flew by quite unhindered as she sent all away to prepare the special part of the recipe. However, she was not alone long as she was joined very soon after.

Mr. Toffee or simply Toffee was the unofficial representation to the Mewnian governmental system of the more undesirable half of the population, that is to say, monsters. Though, no one quite remembered electing him, either among his fellow lawmakers or among the monsters themselves. He was simply present for nearly everything and questioning why seemed a little, impolite.

The queen did not trust him.

"Your majesty," his velvety voice entreated. "I see you are making your delectable corn for tonight's celebration. How delicious, I will be so sorry to miss it, I have to be absent from the festivities I'm afraid, urgent business for the betterment of my people you see."

"How unfortunate. You will be sadly missed." Replied Queen Butterfly, quite ill at ease. "I suppose you cannot postpone your departure until you have had dinner?"

"Thank you, my queen but it is unavoidable. I must leave before the dusk. However, if I may ask, would it be completely out of the question that some corn might be spared and put aside to take with me? Just a little." There was nothing overly suspicious about such a request and the queen besides her own doubts toward the Lizard Man had no reason to refuse.

"Yes, I believe that would be fine, it will be done cooking in just a few short minutes."

So Toffee waited, but the queen could not shake her odd feeling of impending doom.

When the corn had finished and been set aside Toffee prepared for his departure. Not without a farewell request however, "My queen, is there enough to be spared for my secretary as well? We have a long journey ahead and he would no doubt appreciate your exceptional cooking."

Still doubtful, Moon Butterfly conceded that it would be fine.

However with the arrival of the secretary came the arrival of the carriage-men, and the footmen, and a handful of Toffee's traveling servants. Asking for their share of the corn and the queen found she could not refuse. Though she felt very lost to the noise and ruckus as one hungry monster after another trampled through the kitchen and ate and ate and ate. Soon there were many who held no jobs related to Toffee at all but wished for food as well.

Now, another queen would have seen the great need her kingdom had, and how hungry her subjects, monster or not, were apparently. Another queen, who was not quite so frightened and not quite so high strung at the moment would have understood that there was a problem and there was a way to fix it. However, Queen Butterfly was none of these things at the time, and in the overwhelming scene she cried out.

When a queen, a queen carrying the heir, a young and somewhat vulnerable queen, a queen previously left alone in a kitchen full of things that could cause great harm, cries out. There is no thought but that she is in grave danger, and the response is the armed guard.

And when the armed guard enters a scene, a room where the queen was previously left alone, and finds it full of monsters, who are not looked on in the most peaceful lights already, there could be trouble. Indeed there was.

What a mess and a fight and brawl and a massacre. Those who had arrived hearing the rumor from an unnamed monster that the queen was giving out some of her wonderful corn, her secret recipe corn. To the general monster assembly, as a sign of her great joy with the news of the forthcoming heir. Those who had come unknowingly and under false pretense. Sadly, many lives were lost.

However, Toffee eluded the forces at every hand. He would not allow himself to be killed, in the midst of the horrible chaos he walked right up to the queen. Undeterred by the guards who lunged at him. Missing horribly.

"You will regret this, you will regret this bloodshed this day. Keep careful watch of your child, your highness. We wouldn't want anything to happen." His eyes were like steel and his tone, flat, no emotion to be detected. Then he had slithered away from the scene. He was not caught.

When the madness had died down and the bloodied casualties taken away. The queen found no corn left to serve the feast. And of course when the king heard of the event he was outraged and frightened for the life of his child. Though that became a state secret.

Star was guarded day and night. Lest any harm befall her.

Toffee had a target on his head, but he had indeed departed from the country. Though it could not be told where he had gone.

Three weeks after the princess's birth a strange stillness settled over the kingdom. All the guards in their posts found their eyes became heavy, their bodies weary. The nannies and nurses and even the guard dogs on duty to protect the little Butterfly heir. All one by one fell fast asleep. A shadow slithered past the doors to the nursery, it leaned over the bassinet where the baby lay. A green light shone briefly. A short word was spoken. Then, all at once, shadow and light were gone without a trace. The sound of the baby crying was all to be heard. The nannies and nurses and guard dogs and guards themselves woke quickly from their dreamland. The king and queen as well, fear gripping their souls. Night terror filling their minds.

"She's alive!" Cried one very young nurse, a sign that could be quite obvious while hearing the babies wails.

Yet, when they approached the bassinet a gasp rang through the room of concerned onlookers.

The child was hideous. A square head, not square in the jaw, not square in the face but a completely square block of a head. Like a piece of wood whittled out with facial features. And oh, such features. Large but beady eyes, no longer shining like tiny diamonds, but dull, with no lashes or fine shape to accommodate for their drawbacks.

Her nose was pointed and large. Her cheeks tiny hearts, which had suited her so, were now so grotesque when combined with the rest that you could hear the Butterfly ancestors turning in their graves from the shame it brought. The worst by far, was her mouth. Large, wholly unlovely, gaping wide like a hole, with her large gnashing smashing teeth showing prominently. Not at all the size a mouth should be, not at all the way a mouth should be. She was...

"A MONSTER!" Cried a young and foolish guard who was thrown out into the dead of night for such a remark about the heir to the throne.

A pair of guards arrived soon after, and more surprisingly in their grip was Toffee.

He was immediately and without ceremony or trial sentenced to execution at dawn.

But before they could do as such he was granted his last words.

In front of Queen and King and court and guards and nannies and nurses and guard dogs. Even the Princess Star in the nurse's arms. Who had been quieted with something she found quite enjoyable in her new state. The cracking of a nut, she had since been given many nuts to crack and it kept her in good spirits now.

Toffee looked the King and Queen straight in the eye. His words, soft, venomous, and final.

"A curse be on you, Moon Butterfly. A curse be on you, River Butterfly. A curse on both of you and your child. She will never be free from her ugliness until her heart is twice as beautiful as yours has been and she can see past the outward appearance."

Then he smiled, it was more unsettlingly than his look of pure hatred.

"She'll be a tough nut to crack."

* * *

 Well obviously they could not leave the princess in such a state and if Magic had got her into that mess than magic must be able to get her out. However, Sir Glossaryck had absolutely no idea how a reversing spell for such a thing might be done because this was unprecedented. It had really never happened before.

Meanwhile Star grew, and because of her hideous appearance she was extra spoiled and extra coddled and all in all was treated in such a way as would make any child ugly, inwardly. Soon she was of the age of reason, which if you haven't been told, is five, and it had become apparent that her personality was far worse than any of her parents' downsides. She was stubborn, arrogant, haughty, boastful, and proud. She made every servant's life a misery and enjoyed it. Grinning her wicked toothy grin when she'd catch them out. Yet, no one was allowed to tell her she was wrong.

Friends for such a creature were not easily come by, Princess Pony Head eventually warmed to her, but it seemed more often a harsh rivalry than a friendship. They even had an especially large argument that lasted four years, until Star was nine, and nearly caused a war between their two kingdoms.

Prince Tom also tried to crack through her very tough shell. Yet, he ended up losing his temper and finding that she was the only person who could be nastier when angry than he was. When they got older he made the mistake of trying to woo her, but she broke him into many pieces.

Meanwhile a search was made for solution. An exhaustive and desperate search. Every wizard and magician and dealer in magic they could find. No one had any idea what could be done about the unsightly princess, and no one was allowed to say that the princess's heart, at least, was not beautiful. So the stipulation of the late Toffee's curse were unheeded.

Then, one day when Star was nearly fourteen, one of the wise ladies assigned to the task ran giddily into the castle holding up a book of old.

"Your majesties, your majesties! I've found the solution!" On that self same day she was dedicated as a national hero.

"We must find a nut, a very hard nut, a very rare nut. Then a young man, who has never shaven, and never worn boots. Must take it and crack it open with his teeth, give the kernels of the nut to the princess to eat, but with his eyes closed, and walk seven steps backwards without stumbling. Then and only then will she be beautiful."

"That sounds quite complicated, are we sure there is no other way?" The king inquired.

"Do we know what kind of nut is needed?" Asked the queen.

"There is no other way that we have found my king, I am deeply sorry." She said with her head bowed in shame, but peeked up again to answer the queen. "The nut is called the Marar, and is only found far away in a place called Terra."

Then she made a realization upon looking at her book again, "I correct myself, your highnesses, this book is very old. Terra is now called _Earth_ if I'm not mistaken."

* * *

 Now there was a sea captain, who had served the king and queen well for many a year in sailing far and wide to bring back wonderful things from other lands. He was called Haverdin. The king and queen called him in, to bring back a Marar from Earth, and they would find a young man who could crack it while he was away.

Captain Haverdin gladly went, for he was a good and well meaning soul, and like everyone else wanted the young princess to be beautiful again. However, unlike everyone else, he had met the princess and he wondered about why so much trouble must be gone to when all she had to do was make a change of heart. Perhaps extend an apology for the wrongs wrought that day before her birth and a statement that things would be different in her reign. She would easily break the spell upon her and the curse upon her family, but then Captain Haverdin saw many things clearer than most.

He was gone for many years, and his travels took him many places. For finding the place called Earth was without such a nut, he had to journey onto other lands far and away. Searching and searching for the nut called _Marar_.

Meanwhile Princess Star grew, and inadvertently got worse. Far worse. In attitude and in appearance. For each day she became more selfish, she earned another ungainly feature. Till she had reached a new level of hideousness. Though Star, did not understand she was hideous. She had never been allowed to look at her reflection, not unless it was in a mirror that altered it. Nor was anyone allowed to tell her as such. According to everyone Star was still the most beautiful princess to ever live, inside and out. It did little to help her not become vain as well as her other faults.

Captain Haverdin was gone a year and a day when the queen and king grew impatient, and came to the conclusion that perhaps the Marar was not the only nut that would solve their problems. Perhaps any nut could be used if the young man still followed all the procedure. So the proclamation for their need was set out. A young man, never shaven, never worn boots, who had a very steady gait when he walked backwards with his eyes closed, and was especially good at cracking nuts.

Many young fools attempted the task, ideals of a rewards filling their head. Yet, none of it ever worked. Hazelnut, macadamia, walnut. Even a peanut which they later realized wasn't a nut at all. No changes.

Star herself was confused about the long string of young men led before her, the absurd amount of nuts she must eat, and the peculiar task they had to perform in her presence. She was especially confused as to why everyone would sigh dejectedly when it was over.

"Are they suitors? Because they don't suit me at all. Look at that one there he has a funny nose, and the other has crooked looking teeth. I would not want my children to be so ugly."

Captain Haverdin gave up in the fourth year. This was impossible, he had traveled the entire planet. Twice over her would say. Circumnavigated and tried once more. He was tired, he was out of sorts, and he missed his home dreadfully. He daren't return to Mewni though, without a _Marar_ or a very good excuse. He needed a rest stop and he needed a little information.

* * *

 Thankfully, he knew exactly where to find both.

Rafael Diaz and Angela Diaz were artistic craftsmen, both man and wife, and had immigrated many years before from Earth with their young son, Marco. If anyone, anywhere, could tell him about the Marar, they certainly could. Not only that, but they were wonderfully cordial people, who welcomed him into their home.

Captain Haverdin explained his plight to his old friends over a late supper. To his surprise Mr. Diaz jumped out of his chair with absolute excitement.

"My dear friend! My dear friend! I have something wonderful for you, something very wonderful! Your troubles are over!" He nodded to his wife, who also was laughing ecstatically. She ran out of the room and came back in but a moment to show the captain a box.

It didn't look to be much, smaller than a bread box, not at all heavy, but she placed it in his palm. He opened it with a look bewilderment across his brow. Until he saw what lie within.

A _Marar_.

If he even had to doubt the legitimacy of such a thing, it even said on the side in the strangest letters but still clearly. _Marar_.

"How?" Asked the flabbergasted captain, astounded and on the verge of tears.

"Well, many years back, when Marco was just new. Nearly nineteen years wouldn't it be?" He asked of his wife and she confirmed and smiled. "I sought out to buy something, a memento to celebrate the birth of our son!"

Nearly nineteen years, Captain Haverdin thought how interesting such a thing was, since that had been the amount of time since the monster massacre in the royal kitchens, when the entire thing started.

"A nut seller came by, offered me the rarest nut he had, fallen off the tree on the same day of Marco's birth. He wanted five and twenty-three, and I just happened to have that exact amount in my pocket. Like fate." Rafael eyes shined with the memory, while the captain just stared ahead not believing his luck, nor the fact that he really needed to meet this Marco Diaz once again.

"Then Raf brought it home to me, and now we keep it, treasure it, hoping to pass it down to Marco, but he doesn't see why. So because it holds no value for him, we will give it to you our, old friend. For the good of you, the princess, the kingdom, and the future." Angie finished tapping the box lid and pushing it further into the old captain's weathered hands.

"I don't know what to say, thank you doesn't seem to be sufficient." Captain Haverdin now freely wiped a tear from his eye. If only all could be so generous.

"May I ask, before I leave may I be reintroduced to your son?"

* * *

 Marco Diaz had never shaven. Years and years he had been trying to grow in facial hair, but none was to be found yet.

Marco Diaz had never worn boots. They were too constricting and gave him rashes.

Marco Diaz was very good at cracking nuts. It was a hobby often used for entertainment at parties.

Marco Diaz was sure-footed, and only faltered when his eyes were open.

Marco Diaz was exactly what they had been looking for.

* * *

 The Captain returned to the palace, Marco at his side. Though a little unsure, he had never been in a palace, but trying to help. He was clad in a red Christmas coat with gold trim, so at least he looked splendid enough.

"Your majesties," Captain Haverdin said bowing at the waist and holding forth the precious box, "I present the Marar."

"Thank you Captain, you will surely be knighted for this. We are all in gratitude to you." Said the king with sincerity.

The queen however was more interested in the much younger man standing next to him.

"What is your name?" She asked of him.

"Marco Diaz," he replied, somewhat terrified "your majesty."

"Are you related to the good Captain?" The resemblance was not there, but one did not refute the queen's assumptions.

"No-" Marco began, mentally preparing himself to be chucked out on his ear.

"He is my Godson." Haverdin interrupted, and put a reassuring arm around the boy's shoulders and smiled at him. "I think he may be the other half of what we need."

Marco stood completely still, ready for inspection or interrogation.

"Tell me young man," she was asking sharply "have you ever shaven?"

"No your majesty," he faltered "I have been unable to grow facial hair thus far."

"Have you ever worn boots?" She continued, impressed with his honesty but never letting it show.

"No, they give me a rash, your highness."

The king and queen shared an unreadable look.

"And you can vouch for him Captain Haverdin?" Asked King Butterfly.

"I most assuredly can."

"I suppose you're eager for a chance at the reward then?" The queen put in, feigning nonchalance about the subject.

"What reward?" Haverdin and young Diaz inquired quite simultaneously.

The king raised an eyebrow.

"The princess's hand in marriage of course, or do you pretend not to know?" It was clear that every question the queen asked was a test.

Haverdin attempted to excuse Marco for him, "When I left there was no reward of any kind-."

"I was not aware of any reward your majesties." Marco said, standing up straighter, he had realized he had done nothing wrong and should not fear telling the truth of this.

"Though if I may," he said with conviction "is it not the princess's choice whom she marries? Should it not be for love?"

Haverdin was shocked silent. The queen too was in disbelief, the king answered as best he could. "Well why wouldn't she fall in love with the person who breaks her lifelong curse?"

Marco was not convinced, but wisely decided not to argue. This reward matter could be settled another time, besides he still wondered if he was capable of breaking a magic spell at all.

So with pomp and ceremony and trial completed, Marco was led to the princess's wing. Now he knew she was no beauty, but he was not prepared for just how dreadful her appearance had become. Ugly thoughts bring ugly traits.

However, he told himself that she was most probably a very lovely girl inwardly and he would bring as such out. A kind favor from one friend to another.

The princess rolled her exceedingly large eyes, for here was another in attempt. Undoubtedly to fail in whatever they were trying to do.

However, this time was different.

Her servants and maids and footmen brought round a mirror, an unaltered mirror. Fear deep within their souls. Then the queen and king themselves entered as well. Bringing the mirror forth and talking very frankly to their daughter, for once.

"Star, my darling," said her father gently "I know you have not been told before what use bringing round these young men to crack nuts for you has been all these years."

"If they are suitors, I do not wish to marry any of them, I will make my own choice in that affair thank you father."

Marco grinned slightly off to the side. It did not escape the princess's notice.

"Though he looks well enough, I might consider it."

This was unexpected at all sides, considering the princess was incredibly picky in everything.

The queen was the only one who pressed on undeterred. "Indeed I think you will consider it. Especially if he completes the task he has set out to to do." She paused ready for a bit of truth, finally. "Star, we tell you, you are beautiful, and though that is true, inwardly. Outwardly, it's not true at all."

"What do you mean? I am the most beautiful princess alive." she turned to her council "is that not so?"

They were about to answer out of fear of the child, but with a sharp look from Queen Butterfly, the fear of the mother far outweighed.

"No, Princess Star, it is not." They answered sadly.

For the first time in many years the large beady eyes filled with genuine concern.

"You!" She called now to Marco and Haverdin. "You are outsiders, you will answer truthfully, am I not beautiful?"

Marco gulped, Haverdin looked pained.

"Your highness, I have no doubt within me that you are very capable of being beautiful." Haverdin tried diplomacy. "Though at the present time..."

Marco tried absolute honesty. "No actually, you aren't."

A mix of fury, pure despise, and fear crossed over the grotesque wood-like face.

"Let me look for myself, I need a mirror."

The queen presented as such, her own mirror, which had not been altered.

"I am not allowed to use your mirror, mother."

"You are now." Replied the queen. "It is one of the few left which has not been altered to suit you."

So she looked, and there staring back at her was the unbecoming face she had unknowingly had since not long after birth.

A soft gasp of horror, as the mirror clattered to the ground. Shattering.

"And..." her voice was whisper soft and trembling but the way it sounded, it could be a lit fuse to a tinder box of temper ready to burn any moment. "Everyone knew?"

Her father now nodded.

"YOU LIED TO ME? MY WHOLE LIFE?" Her voice rose in volume. Disgust and hatred painted her face as she stared steadily at her parents.

She turned abruptly to the young Diaz.

"AND YOU, YOU'RE HERE TO FIX IT THEN?"

Marco felt terribly sorry for her, but also terrified.

"I'm going to try." He said softly, but shook away his fear. "I'm going to try." He said more firmly.

The Princess on her perch of a throne looked positively snake like as she lowered her voice to reasonable but still cutting level.

"You're going to have to do more than try."

* * *

 So the room was made, on either side long rows of the onlookers, servants, maids, footmen, King and Queen Butterfly, Captain Haverdin, royal advisors and councils and court. Nurses, nannies, guards and guard dogs, wizards, magicians, and wise ladies.

Marco in his fine red Christmas coat, left in the center holding the precious box.

Marco, who had never shaven, and never worn boots.

He opened the box and held it out to the Princess on her throne for inspection.

"This is the Marar. A very rare nut from far and abroad, originated in Terra which is now called Earth." He explained just as Haverdin instructed. "This Marar is one of the last to be found, brought back to your kingdom but Captain Haverdin himself after a long arduous search for many many years." That was not in the script, but Marco liked to put credit where credit was deserved.

"Allow me to crack it for you, Princess." Though Star was still skeptical.

That was a very hard nut.

Then he closed his eyes, took the nut between his teeth, and without further ceremony, chomped.

The shell broke, the kernels retrieved from within. He held them out to the princess still eyes kept shut. And proceeded to walk the seven steps.

Star popped the kernels in her mouth, the taste was nothing at all but feeling was all at once different as a murmur rose from the room.

"How lovely she is!" Cried a maid.

"Eyes like azure stones, see how they sparkle!" Cried a footmen.

"Hair like fine gold corn silk!" Cried a nurse!

"Skin lily-fair and rose-red woven!" Exclaimed a wise lady.

"And her mouth..." breathed her mother, verge of tears.

"As a mouth should be, with two fine rows of sharply pointed pearly teeth." Her father finished, crying quite openly.

Everyone had forgotten about the poor young man still attempting to take the seven steps back.

Five... Six... When Marco felt his heel catch. Something had tripped him up, something that felt suspiciously like the tail of a lizard.

The boy stumbled, falling far as his eyes flew open, and suddenly a nurse was crying in horror.

"Oh my, he is a monster!"

A change had overtaken his own head.

* * *

 The Princess remained fine looking, for the magic had done its part, but because a curse was not broken, someone had to pay the consequence. That someone appeared to be Marco.

His face was as a chestnut block, carved out with features. It did not suit him, nor would it suit anyone. Eyes of brown locked in dull stare. His coat too was blocky and dreadful. Lacking it's smooth matte luster. And a mouth far too large to be proper with two rows of smashing gnashing teeth.

A hushed shock ran around the room. Marco arose from the ground and brushed himself off, he was largely undeterred by the change as he figured it was a minor inconvenience. Perhaps if such fantastical fairy tales were true already, the situation might be remedied with true love. True love that can see through appearances as it is. He grinned up at the Princess hopefully, but it just looked rather frightening.

She did not say thank you. She did not gasp in horror. She did none of these. She laughed. She laughed heartily in his face, for he did look so awful. And when the king said "Are you not going to thank him my dear? For doing you a service? Will you not marry now the man who has broken your spell?"

"Marry him? Don't be absurd, father. He is terribly ugly, and what service has he done but made himself a fool?" She laughed gaily and departed, off to enjoy her newfound beauty.

Marco's face fell and though the anger tried to bubble through him, he was too distraught to attempt a rebuttal before her departure.

The king and queen, for the first time in many years, felt very guilty. For good reason too, this was indeed more their fault than any others. They came to the boy, offering their sympathies and apologies, but he heard none of them. Though the king did offer him his own tiny duchy he had procured from a neighboring country. If only to recompense. It was far enough away, to where the young man could live out his days peacefully with his new shame. Neither was to know that this curse left him unable to age as well.

Then they too departed, and one by one the court, and council, advisors, maids, footmen, servants, magicians, wizards, nannies, nurses, guards and guard dogs, and nearly all the wise ladies made their leave.

Captain Haverdin remained, along his side a daughter of the wise woman who had found the spell breaker. Her name was Janna. She looked at the boy seriously, and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Courage, dear heart." She said at last. "I have an idea of what might be done."

* * *

_Star searched the next pages in disbelief, where was the rest? This couldn't be the end of the story. That was no ending at all!_

_She sighed and closed the book, that's what she got for conjuring up a fairy tale book with a faulty wand. An incomplete story._

_Marco appeared in the doorway when he heard her sigh._

_"What's wrong, Star?"_

_"This book I'm reading. I don't like the ending, actually I don't like quite a lot of it."_

_"What's it called?" He asked, he could imagine if it was The Fault In Our Stars, or a certain Percy Jackson, Star would be very upset with the ending._

_"The Story of the Hard Nut." She answered simply, innocently._

_Marco reeled a little in the doorway. That did not sound like an appropriate book title, though maybe he just had a dirty mind._

_"Where'd you find-? Did Ferguson lend you this?" He was a tad bit concerned._

_Star shook her head "No it's a fairytale, I conjured up with magic, I was bored." That was the general reasons for most things Star did. "It has us in it, but I don't like my character. Your character is fine."_

_Now with his dirty thoughts alleviated he realized the name rang familiar._

_"Wait, the Story of the Hard Nut, like from the original version of the Nutcracker?"_

_"The what?"_

_Marco did not answer but rushed down the hall to his bookshelf, pulling out the forgotten article and returning to deposit it in Star's lap. "Here Star, I think you'll like this, it's the complete story and it actually has a happy ending."_

_"Thanks Marco! Wanna trade? You can read this version, like I said your character is very nice."_

_Marco thanked her and took the book to his room. Though he was not to read it that night._

_Star too, drifted off before the story could reach happy conclusion._

_Though shared visions of Sugar Plums danced in their heads_.


	2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Breakdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When your weird godfather ships you with a wooden version of your best friend.
> 
> Yeah that's a tad concerning.

The night fell over the hills beyond the Diaz house and crept to the door. 

It was once more the Diaz's annual Christmas Party, and when the Diazs did Christmas they did it right. Every inch, every window and doorway and wall was dressed and decked in finery. Marco himself, even traded his regular red hoodie for a much more festive red Christmas hoodie, he was quite the splendid sight.

Light and sounds, warmth and merriment. The gathering of friend's from far and wide. Though Marco could not seem to find Star amongst them.

He finally resorted to asking. "Mom, have you seen St-?"

However, before he could finish his dad cut him off with brining another visitor around and interrupting to begin introductions.

"Mijo, look who it is! Do you remember your Godfather, Captain Haverdin?"

"No?" Marco answered truthfully, because the old man in front of him wasn't recognizable at all, yet oddly familiar.

"Marco! My how you've grown!" He turned to his old friend "Of course he wouldn't remember me Rafael, I'm away so much, not much of a godfather am I?"

He was quite jolly, in a salty sea dog way.

"Nonesense," said Mrs. Diaz jovially "We knew you'd come home if you were ever needed. And you're here now!"

"Aye, indeed I am Angie, and I've got a present for you m'lad." The old man procured almost out of nothing, a beautifully wrapped box.

Even in his confusion, Marco was quite pleased to accept it.

"Thank you Godfather, it's great to see you, again I guess." he said gratefully, then tried again to ask his previous question "Dad where is St-?"

"Well open it." Pressed the old man, again interrupting him.

Marco undid the bow, trying to persevere it, he hated to waste. Then lifted the lid of the box. Lying on a piece of blue silk, was a Nutcracker, a nutcracker that looked astoundingly like Star. Right down to the hearts gracing her cheeks. Marco's eyes widened in bewildered shock.

"Th-thank you." He choked out. Truth be told he was fearing the worst for his poor best friend trapped within the doll. At least he was pretty sure that's what had happened.

"A nutcracker?" Asked Angie slightly confused.

"Well, the boy always did enjoy the ballet, and this one comes from quite far away. I saw 'er and I thought to meself, 'my, what a match she is for my Marco 'ere', so I brought 'er 'ome."

Rafael and Angie exchanged slightly concerned looks, first their son could not remove his eyes from the wooden doll, then the old Captain had called it a match. Yes, this was a tad concerning.

"She looks just like St-" Marco breathed out but was again cut off.

"So Marco, are you enjoying life? School? Friends? What about a fine girl? I'm sure you've attracted the attention of some sweet lass or another."

"Life is good. School is good. I have a few friends, and a best friend, as far as girls go..." he looked up from the nutcracker now but still trailed off.

"There's time, m'lad. Or you could live the independent life likes me. I'm not bashin' it, it's treated me well."

"Cap..." inserted Angie, she did want grandchildren after all.

"Well, per'aps not. But there's time. Lots of time, and meanwhile you've got a lovely girl right there."

Again Mr. and Mrs. Diaz were a tad concerned.

* * *

 The Nutcracker did not leave Marco's side for the evening.

 He sat ruminating what must be done to free Star from the wooden prison for quite a while after. The party continued on around him in a blur of music and color.

"Aw, you saved me a seat." Said a voice, settling herself on the open couch cushion next to him.

He didn't look at the speaker but simply let out an annoyed. "Hello, Janna."

"Merry Christmas, Diaz." Replied Janna in her Janna sort of way. "Why you being such a party pooper tonight? Shouldn't you be awkwardly trying to get Jackie Lynn Thomas near the mistletoe, or you know someone else, perhaps?" You could hear the hinting in her tone.

Marco remained quiet, still looking at the nutcracker Star in his hands with confusion.

"What's with the Nutcracker? You're holding it like it's the most precious thing on earth. Reenacting the ballet? Going to dance with it?" She was just on the edge of laughing.

"Isn't it weird how it looks just like Star?" He asked her finally, thankful he was finally able to completely say the name. "And isn't it weird that she's not here?"

"Who?" Janna wondered if Marco got into the adults' Christmas punch.

"Star, my best friend, yours too I would think." Marco was growing frustrated.

She looked at him blankly. "Um," she said, after a moment she shook her head "yeah I have no clue who you're talking about."

"Star, you know, she's magic, a princess? From another dimension? Lives here. In this house." With every bit of information Janna's expression of complete bewilderment did not change.

"Are you sure that's not just wishful thinking? I think Marco P.H.D. needs to have his own head examined."

"I'm not crazy Janna, she's trapped inside this thing." Marco tried to keep his voice level, but part of him wondered, was he crazy?

"Who? The ghost of your grandmother?" Though Janna teased, she was worried, Marco was going bonkers on Christmas.

"No! Star!" And to emphasize he pointed to the doll.

"Oh right, your imaginary girlfriend." She nodded assuredly.

"She's not imaginary!" He forgot to also deny she was his girlfriend but you know whatever. Also it was a rather loud outburst and the party stopped for a moment around them. However no one paid any mind, Marco was constantly having an existential crisis. The merriment continued.

"Okay let's just calm down now. Let me see your new Nutcracker." Janna tried to alleviate hoping that Marco was just briefly being overtaken by some fit of Christmas madness. It would be gone by the twenty-sixth.

Marco reluctantly handed over Star to Janna.

"She's pretty, you know, for a Nutcracker. I mean that face could not be really called pretty but she looks nice for one."

Marco glared at her. "What? I'm being honest, I said she was pretty for a Nutcracker, give me a break!" Janna defended.

Then she got an idea into her head, in retrospect it was not a helpful idea.

"Let's put her to some use," she said pulling a nut out of her pocket, why she had it? Best not to ask. "Dear magic princess, may we request you break this fine rare nut?" She looked playfully at Marco and motioned to him as she enunciated "The _Marar_? There that should make you happy Marco, I named the nut after your power couple name."

"That's a walnut, Janna."

"Tomato, potato." She shrugged and began to situate the hulking thing in the Nutcracker's accommodating mouth.

"What? No, what are you doing?" Marco asked attempting to grasp at the doll once more.

"Fulfilling her destiny, imagine her life, with no purpose. No, that would be a shame." Janna easily held it out of reach.

"She's not that kind of nutcracker, she's for decorative purposes only! She could get hurt!"

"Fine, if she gets hurt you can go get your precious first aid kit and patch her up, don't pretend like you wouldn't."

Marco could not argue with this and Janna let Star's little mouth shut with a terrible crack.

The nut fell away broken, but the little handle in the back of the nutcracker was broken as well. Falling off kilter and out of place and leaving the mouth gaping wide.

Marco let out a yelp and taking back the doll pulled his kerchief from his pocket.

What? It was cold and flu season.

Janna just picked up the nut and shrugged lightly once more "guess you were right Diaz, decorative purposes only. Sorry, but what kind of nutcracker isn't made for nuts?"

"You're nuts." He said holding the Nutcracker protectively and wrapping up the wound gently.

"I'm not the one in love with a nutcracker." She said, and returned to the party.

* * *

 Marco found himself opening his eyes unexpectedly. Gazing up at the living room ceiling, he heard the clock chime. Midnight. He must have fallen asleep on the couch during the party. Embarrassing yes, but his reputation was so far agone already, what was a little more? He was exhausted, what should have been a happy occasion felt empty without Star around. He hoped maybe she had just returned to Mewni for the holidays, and Janna was just messing with him with this mock amnesia. He wondered though, shouldn't he remember her going? He turned on his side, the lights of the Christmas tree twinkled at him. He couldn't remember. He remembered going to bed. Star was there. Not in his bed, that is. Marco swished away such thoughts. Then he had awoken, right? Awoken and gotten ready for the Christmas party. Sure. Excitement of the night confused his memory.

Though, what if... what if Janna was right? Anything was possible. What if he had imagined her. Wishful thinking, the perfect best friend, the perfect girlfriend. No, he wouldn't allow himself that line of thought. Still, people did unexpected things when they are lonely. Had he been living in a dream world? Had the last, so odd months of his life been merely a dream he was now just waking from? He was scared. A world without Star. That was a terrifying and depressing thought. A sad and desolate thought. A cold and alone thought.

A nightmare.

He shut his eyes again tightly. Praying that yes, all this was but a nightmare, and when you go to sleep in a dream you awake in the real world.

The only problem was, which was the real world and which was a dream?


	3. It's A Wonderful Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashley Tisdale: "To think, to dream, to be free of the curse."
> 
> You think the title is a parody of 'It's A Wonderful Life' but actually it's just the song that plays during the credits of Flushed Away.

When he awoke again he had tumbled off the couch, the fall was much longer than he expected. He was used to such injuries though. battling alongside Star. Landing with a splat and thud.

"You okay?" Said a familiar voice, a wonderful voice, a voice he thought he had dreamt and imagined.

Marco rubbed his head and opened his eyes. And there stood Star. Only, not. For Star looked the same as the Star Nutcracker from earlier. Only a good deal closer to his size. He grinned like a madman, Star was Star, Nutcracker face or not.

She lent him a hand to help him to his feet. And when he had fully adjusted to standing, he smiled even wider. "Oh Star, I'm so glad you're okay." Coming in for a trademark hug. She however slipped out of the way quickly before he could.

"Woah there buddy, I know you just got hit on the head, but I'm fine, and I don't give out hugs until I really know a person." Then she looked him up and down as if trying to remember something. "Also have we met? How do you know my name?"

Marco's eyes widened confused. "It's me, Marco." He felt an odd sense of deja vu as well.

She stared at him blankly.

"Your best friend?" He tried again.

"Moving a little fast there aren't we, uh, Marco, uh?" She smiled warily behind the large teethy mouth.

"Diaz." He supplied. "You really don't remember me?" He was hurt, and scared too, no one remembered Star and now Star didn't remember him. It was like... a very twisted version of that old black and white film he liked to watch with his mom on Christmas Eve. The one where the man wishes he'd never been born.

Maybe the hurt showed.

"Hey now little guy," she said gently, comfortingly, and just the turn of phrase made him feel better. "I may not remember you but that's okay. I don't remember lots of things, like if I really did leave that latch open on that field of warnicorns, or if they got out on their own."

He felt himself smile again. Then looked up and let out a yelp. The tree was fifty feet taller than it should have been.

"I've shrunk!"

"Really? How'd you do that?"

"This wasn't you?" She shook her head.

"Uh uh. I've been attempting a shrinking spell for years, but I always end up entering my psyche instead. I guess my wand can't tell the difference between shrink the noun, and shrink the verb." She brandished the device for punctuation.

"Then I don't know."

She was about to respond when she paused like a deer caught in the headlights, listening. Then in a hissed whisper "Get down!"

"What?" He asked but found himself being pulled by the hand and under what he once had thought was his sofa.

"Who is it? Ludo?" He whispered, trying to adjust his eyes to the way the Christmas tree lights reflected off the floors. Looking around for any sign of the maniac furby.

"Yeah it's- wait how do you know about Ludo?" He couldn't see much, either from her face's lack of expressions, or from the little light under the sofa but he knew she was giving him the suspicious Star look.

"I know you don't remember but-" no, she was not convinced. "You don't fight a villain without learning his name. " Conceding she'd like that answer a bit more.

"You can fight?" She sounded eager of course, and Marco felt more deja vu. His stomach twisted because so badly he wished Star remembered.

"Karate." He answered.

"Car-raw-tea?" She questioned.

"That's what it's called."

"I'll have to see it in action."

"You will." And he could almost feel her smile.

Ludo and his minions now were stalking around the Christmas tree. "Where are you Princess Nutterfly? We know you're here..." Interestingly, Ludo wore three crowns on his head.

The monsters began looking behind the exceedingly large presents, and climbing onto the lower branches of the trees. Searching for several minutes while Star and Marco lay in wait under the couch.

"I dunno boss, are we sure this is right house?" Asked Yvegney of his commander.

"Of course it is, I was in charge of the gps this time not you and I know exactly where we are- wait does that say Lake or Lark?" He squinted while his second in command rolled his eyes. "I hope Santa brings me some reading glasses, I need some new ones." He commented.

Star had had enough. "This is boring." She told Marco and pulling the boy by the hand again, the duo emerged from their dusty hiding place.

"I doubt Santa will bring you anything Ludo, you're like the walking example of the naughty list." She taunted.

Marco nodded in agreement.

"Ah Star Nutterfly and..." he looked over Marco with confusion, turning to Yvegney for some information and finding none. "Some... guy. I see you've walked right into my trap. Hand over the wand."

"Why would I do that?"

"Cause it's Christmas?" He attempted.

"I doubt whatever you're planning to do involves either peace on earth or good will towards men." Marco taunted himself, and felt that warranted some small look of impressiveness. Star certainly gave it and several of the monsters thought it pretty good word play too.

"What do you know? You freaky little dude, aren't you humans supposed to be taller?" This was a tad bit concerning to Ludo actually, what the heck was this extra tiny human doing here and whatever had made him tiny and he hoped it wasn't catching?

"You should be glad I'm not." Marco said, half threateningly but half in a way that just said he was stating a fact.

Ludo even nodded, "That's true." His minions agreed amongst themselves.

"Well anyway, if you won't give up the wand, then we'll just have to take it!"

The battle commenced. Star casting spells, Marco performing the age old art of Car-Raw-Tea, and Ludo and his minions using well, whatever they had.

Still despite the fact that the duo worked like a well oiled machine together, bouncing off each other in perfect synchronization, they were largely outnumbered.

The fight even escalated to the branches of the tree.

Marco gazed down below, where Star was narwhal blasting her way through a crowd of monsters. However from his lofty view he could see a sneak attack at the hands of Bearicorn.

"Star watch out!" He cried from above and pushed off an exceptionally large and heavy, and excessively old gingerbread ornament. Or at least it looked like gingerbread, but it was really that odd dough substance that is impervious even after seven or eight years.

The gingerbread fell and Star dodged, and it came a crashing down on the large clump of remaining monsters all at once, disabling their movements and even trapping Ludo.

"Wow! Great job!" Star cried, looking up to Marco with admiration as he descended.

"Thanks." He said happily, "I'm just glad you're safe."

There was a silence for a moment or two and the two shared quiet smiles. Then Star turned back towards the groaning pile of monsters. "Just a second." She told Marco, who nodded in understanding.

She zapped a spell over the minions, putting them to sleep immediately, just in case anyone got any ideas about escaping.

Then marching over to the side where Ludo lay crushed by cookie, she plucked the three crowns where they had tumbled off his head. "A little mercy? That's all I ask. It's Christmas you know." He said trembling.

"Just admit defeat."

"Fine, I'm defeated. Can I please go home now?" His shrill voice pleaded.

"Sure, Merry Christmas!" And she procured her scissors and cut around the lot of them to make a portal big enough. Till the sleeping pile fell through to the other side.

Soon she was back at Marco's side. "You deserve these." She said depositing the crowns in his hands. "One is Ludo's, one belonged to a monster named Toffee, and one belonged to the very worst of them all. Ludo's mother." Both shivered and cringed in disgust at the thought.

Marco looked down at the crowns in his hands, his first thought was of moist towelettes he usually kept in his hoodie pocket, after all these things had been on Ludo's head. His second thought was to the girl in front of him again. How happy he felt that she was there, even if she couldn't remember, and even if she looked different. She was still the same Star he knew and loved. (As a friend, he put in after).

When he had looked up, her face had changed. The Nutcracker appearance had flittered away, and there stood regular Star.

She touched her face in disbelief. "I'm me!" She cried. "Look! Lookie Marco, I'm me! Regular me! I betcha didn't know that wasn't my normal appearance, well it wasn't! That was a curse! And it's broken! I'm me, I'm me!" She was hopping and bouncing and patting her cheeks.

He was laughing now. "Actually I did know. It's good to see your regular self again Star."

She stopped in front of him. "I'm sorry I don't remember you, but I believe you do know me. You must have known me a little at least, since you broke the curse." She was quieter now, and a little shy as she said it.

Marco was puzzled. "I broke it? But I thought it was because you defeated Ludo."

"We defeated Ludo, but no, that wasn't going to break the curse." She walked a little around him as she talked.

"Then... how-?" He stood still, trying to think if he'd done anything special but couldn't place it on anything.

"You just did." She said, and that was all the information she was going to give. She definitely wasn't looking him in the eye. But Marco knew Star well enough by now, that pushing the topic would not help either.

"You wanna maybe go somewhere?" She asked after a moment. "You know, together?" She almost sounded nervous, and slightly, hopeful?

"Like another dimension?" He asked, and though he was tired he readily agreed because he wasn't sure what she'd do if he said no. Would she leave? How would he find her again?

"Yeah, or maybe I could bring you back to my kingdom, the long way around? Then you can receive an honor for helping me defeat Ludo."

"To Mewni?" He asked. Wondering if maybe if she didn't remember him, her parents might.

"Yeah, have you ever been?"

"Quite a few times. With you actually."

"Oh yeah, that makes sense." She opened the portal. "After you, please keep your arms and legs within safe distance of the rift in the fabric of space and no flash photography. Por favor, mantenga los brazos y las piernas dentro de la distancia de seguridad de la grieta en el tejido del espacio y ninguna fotografía con flash."

"I see your Spanish skills are improving."

Though Star couldn't for the life of her figure out where she had learned that from.

* * *

 They found themselves deposited in a snowy wood. Shivering against the cold. "This isn't Mewni." Marco complained before Star reminded him "we're taking the long way round."

Marco felt something bubble up inside him and come out through his mouth, the inherent need to sing, and he did. " _The one with the prettiest of views_."

Somehow, Star too, though she couldn't remember where she learned the words continued it. " _It's got mountains, it's got rivers, it's got sights to bring you shivers_."

True.

They joined in harmony for the last. " _But it sure would be prettier with you._ "

Then they broke off laughing, pure joy echoing through the stillness of the falling snow and clear night. A half moon shining in the trees.

It ended with a very quiet and settling gaze on one another, no words needed. Then Star shivered and Marco shrugged off his hoodie.

"You're wearing short sleeves, here." And placed the jacket over her attire, which was not in retrospect, her usual style but much more in line with Mewnian finery, though still fit for battle.

"What about you? I can't let you give up your Christmas coat."

"Me? I'm fine." He pulled down the long sleeves on his green undershirt, which had been a more festive choice then usual grey. It was thin though. She still tried to hand it back but he shook his head. "Keep it Star, I've got others y'know."

"No I don't know..." she said reproachfully, regretfully. Looking down at the moonlit snow.

Marco looked down too and they both walked in a less comfortable silence then before.

"How long have you known me? That you can remember, that is." She asked after a while.

"Nearly a year now." he said with a sigh. Thinking back on it, yes nearly a year. How much he looked forward to celebrating their one year friendaversary with her, reliving their past adventures. He wondered if such a thing were to be with the current situation. They could still celebrate her fifteenth birthday at least.

"Wow," was all she said.

After a little longer she asked "Where did we meet?"

"At school." He answered simply.

"School?" Her voice rose in panic "Like St. O's?"

"No, no Star, don't worry not St. O's. Our school, Echo Creek Academy. You were a foreign exchange student. You uh, actually came to live with us."

"We lived together?"

Marco coughed awkwardly, "in separate rooms, but yeah, roommates, then best friends, you were like one of the family. I think my parents saw you as their other kid."

"Oh," something in her voice but he couldn't place it, "so like a daughter? Like your sister? So you saw me as a sister?"

"No, _they_ saw you as their other kid, and you called us mess up twins, but we weren't" he couldn't figure out why he felt bothered by the thought "I mean. Marco Diaz, came into this world alone." He finished.

She was smiling again at least. Then she took his hand. He felt so at home once more he almost wanted to cry. He had been so worried earlier when he thought she was gone. She swung it as they walked.

"So you told me where we met, and the reasons but I want to know... how did we meet? Like what happened exactly?"

Marco felt shameful when he remembered how he acted that day, but Star deserved honesty.

"Well, to be honest, I wasn't that nice to you when we were first introduced. Skeeves, that is our principal, chose me to be your guide. I wasn't too happy because the biggest reason I was chosen was because they call me the safe kid."

Star just listened as they walked and decided not to nod in agreement to this.

"I really wanted to be a misunderstood bad boy, it seems kind of silly now, since it's been such a long time. I like to think I've grown up a little since then."

Star quietly and inwardly decided Marco didn't need to be a misunderstood bad boy.

"Anyway, so when we met I was still kinda upset, then you called me safe kid, and you were acting a little unusual." He caught himself before she could ask what he meant by unusual. "It wasn't that strange but I wasn't used to you yet."

This didn't sound like the meet cute she had expected.

"Anyway so then I thought I had left you behind at school, but I get home and you're staying with us. Then you created the laser puppies with your wand."

"Laser Puppies?" She asked excitedly. Those sounded fun.

"Yeah, kinda to cheer me up I think? Maybe not, but there's about six of them. We named them together later."

"Does that mean you warmed up to me?" She also wondered what they had named them.

"We're getting there. So then you transformed the guest room, and it looked amazing and you offered to do mine."

Star also wondered how amazing her room looked.

"I think you used the wrong spell though, because my room got sucked into a black hole."

Her eyes widened in concern. "I'm sorry!"

"I'm not." He answered genuinely "It was the reason we had our first sleepover that night, which really let us get to know each other. Then it was also one of our first adventures together when we got to track down where the black hole took my stuff."

"That sounds fun!"

"It was." He nodded "Though at the time, I was pretty upset. You tried to cheer me up with a sunshine spell but it turned to rain. I got all mad and left."

A sharp wind blew, Marco looked straight ahead, remembering that night. He turned back to Star, his face full of emotion and reminiscence. "But... you came after me."

He smiled with pleasant thought. "You told me, that you would find another family to stay with. Give up all those new comforts. I mean my parents adored you and were happy to let you change your room and magically materialize puppies and all this stuff, but I doubt other people would have. Yet, you were willing to give it up, for me..."

Another silence fell in between, as both ruminated on such illusions of life as human behaviors.

"I felt like a jerk, I was a jerk. I was about to tell you that you didn't have to leave us when Ludo sneak attacked. So we fought together, and the future looked brighter than previously anticipated."

This sounded much better than the meet cute Star had expected.

"Do we fight a lot together? In your memory?" She imagined what it must be like to have him beside her in all her fights.

"Oh all the time, we're a team, you with your wand, me with karate, we kick monster butt!" He was excited and kinda hopped in the snow.

"But Marco," she asked tentatively "How did it end?"

"We sent Ludo running, I asked you to stay, and we became best friends." His voice softened slightly... "and you gave me a hug."

So that's why he had tried to hug her earlier. The idea of doing so didn't seem so bad now.

* * *

 With the end of the story came the end of the wood. In the distance the sun was peeking up over some far away mountain. Though before them, down a dipping hill, lay a little valley set with a river, upon which was a fine fine boat to sail. Quite yar.

They ran down the hill, whooping and hollering with only the joy ones who still have not left their childhood completely can feel.

Star looked down at her reflection in the river, so happy to be herself.

Then she hugged Marco.

"If I can't remember hugging you that first time. I think I need to make up for it." She explained. Marco just laughed happily and returned it.

The crew of the ship had been woken by their shouts. A crew of three ship cats, the captain of which came out to scold them. However at the sight of Star he was taken aback.

"Your Majesty!" He cried with honor. "How well you look, so lovely!"

"Thank you! Isn't it wonderful?" She called back, blushing lightly.

"Indeed it is! Forgive me for my appearance but it is quite early and Christmas morn as well. If I had known you were coming we would have been more presentable."

Marco had never seen a cat in nightclothes, or in clothes of any kind really.

"I guess those are the cat's pajamas?" He whispered to Star. He really couldn't help it.

She held in a laugh and a half whispered "Marco!" Though still could not hide her smile. She tried to be more serious though when addressing the Cat-tain.

"Don't be silly Reggie, I don't mind, I'm sorry we woke you but we were very excited."

"Think nothing of it, your highness, may we be of any assistance?" Asked Reggie amicably as his shipmates arrived from their cabins and after a moment of realization, standing to attention.

"Well, a lift would be nice, down the river?" She asked.

"We'd consider it an honor." Said Reggie.

And they were welcomed aboard, well, Star was.

"Aye who be you then?" Said the first mate, Colin, suspiciously, before letting Marco off the gang plank.

"He's with me, and I would consider treating him better than that Colin. He's a national hero."

"Oh, you takin' 'im to the cap'tal then? To be decorat'd?" Asked Colin as Marco was led aboard.

"Yes," answered Marco happily, "by King River and Queen Moon."

Star's eyes widened in shock as she stopped dead on the deck of the boat.

Colin was a bit skeptical. "Wells I dunno how youse expect to do that, seeing as they'd been dead for seven years."

 


	4. Like Ships Upon A Winding River

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _And yet somehow we found each other like strangers you and I._

Marco too now stood stock still on the ship's deck. Star was unmoving and her back was to him so he couldn't read her face.

Still he protested. "That's impossible."

"'Tis very possible laddie, more possible than anyt'ing, I should imagin'." Colin continued affably and unfazed. "It 'pears your 'ero got intos the Christmas punch, m'Queen."

Star still did not move.

Marco tried to wrap his head around them calling her queen.

"But, I'm serious, they can't be dead, I talked to them less then two weeks ago!"

"In a seance?" Asked the third member of the crew now, Ol' Penelope.

"Now now," said Reggie with anxious glance to the pale girl who was caught silent. "Is this any way to talk in front of our dear queen? Let's drop the subject."

The two other ship cats departed to the inners of the ship while Reggie took his place on the wheel platform, giving some privacy to his Royal passenger and her guest behind the sails.

"Thank you Reggie." Star finally spoke to his departing form, then shakily made her way towards the benches over looking the water as the ship glided down the river.

"Marco, could you come here a minute?" She asked but did not look up or at him.

Marco sat down, but noticing her behavior knew not to sit too close.

Suddenly she looked up from the water straight at him, her eyes ablaze with anger. In a whisper she hissed. "Who are you, and what do you want from me?"

Marco was taken aback. "Star..." he whispered back, gently, reproachfully.

"No don't you dare use my name, or my parents names. Or anything. I don't know how you know these things about me, all I want to know is what you want." Her voice had reached its normal level in her anger.

"I told you the truth, I'm Marco Diaz, you're my best friend, up until I shrunk and fell off the couch I'd thought I'd lost you or dreamt you up. And I'm so confused, your parents can't be dead, even besides when I saw them two weeks ago, I know they're alive. They've been alive. Your dad came camping with us, and visited for like almost a month once. Your mom calls you every day. We went to your family reunion, your mom made us sit at the kids table and you threw your dad down the hill during flags."

"Then maybe you did dream all that up, no matter what you think the truth is. My parents were killed by Toffee, the monster who wore one of the crowns I gave you." She felt small tears pricking her eyes but blinked them back.

Marco tried to process this, but couldn't. "Toffee is dead Star."

"Of course he is, I killed him when I was eleven."

"But you killed him last Summer, when you gave up your wand to save me."

"Gave up my wand-?" She questioned but looked at him seriously "No, I don't understand how you have memories of things that never happened, or at lease illusions where you're best friends with me although we've never met. But that is just it Marco, we've never met. None of those things ever happened." She felt anguished.

"They had to Star Butterfly, I know I didn't imagine them. I know it."

Marco now looked down into the river, hoping the reflection would show him a memory and confirm its legitimacy.

Star however wiped the tears from her eyes with realization. "What did you call me?"

"Your name, Star Butterfly. Or did I dream that up too?" He answered agitatedly but still did not look up to see her bewilderment.

"That's not my name." She finally said. Standing up.

Marco looked up now.

"What?" Was all he said. Not sure of what other question that could be ask.

"My name is _Star Nutterfly_." She didn't look mad or sad or indignant now, she just looked as if she was giving an oral report, reciting a multiplication table, or the Constitution, or any other thing that was factual.

"Nut-Nutterfly?" Marco.exe had stopped functioning. He jumped up from his seat but was careful when he remembered he was on a ship. "You're not my Star!" He didn't know whether to laugh or cry but he felt a world better. Still the other thought of where his actual Star was, and why he was here with her Nutterfly counterpart...

He'd burn that bridge when he came to it.

"You mean there's more than one of me?" This was new information to Star Nutterfly. Slightly disconcerting information.

"You're from another dimension, so why couldn't parallel timelines exist? Or alternate universes?" Marco was laughing now with joy. Maybe he had gone mad but he knew he would be sensible again in a moment.

"So all those events... all those memories you have, they were of another me? A me whose parents are alive? Who lives with you at your house?" She could not hide her slight disappointment in a way.

Marco had not heard though as he babbled on to himself still feeling very relieved "I should have known by those woods! They weren't like Mewni at all, they were like something out of Narnia or the Nutcracker Ballet-."

He stopped. Another realization.

"Wait." He took in his breath with the revelation.

"What?" Was Star's turn to ask.

"Am I dreaming? This is a dream? Yeah that would make sense..."

"Marco?"

He turned to her "Last night! Not last night in the dream, that Christmas party, that wasn't real at all. Why would I even think it was real? Christmas isn't for like a month and a half. Actual last night though. You, I mean the other you, were reading that fairy tale book you conjured up and I brought in the actual Nutcracker to make you happy because you didn't like the ending of yours..."

"Marco..."

"Ugh, I'm such an idiot! In that fight, Ludo had all his monsters! Why didn't I realize? All those monsters died when you killed Toffee! And Buff Frog! Was Buff Frog with them?" Star refused to nod or shake her head until he answered her properly. Still he continued. "I think he was! That wouldn't make any sense at all! We're friends now, we babysat the tadpoles!"

"Marco Diaz!"

He finally listened.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know if you're dreaming or not, but I do know one thing, I exist and not as just a figment of your dream." Star looked a little mad, but mostly sad.

Marco paced around the deck of the boat, he should have realized his lack of motion sickness on such a vessel the side effect of dreaming as well. However this was much more than a dream. It was in a way, an epiphany, a vision he had entered in his dream like state. More Christmas Carol then Nutcracker, but then what was it trying to teach him?

"I'm sure you exist, but I'm definitely dreaming. I'm not sure how, and I'm not sure why." He answered and he was at least in sensible state again as both ruminated over this new mystery.

Star had tears in her eyes however.

"Star? What's the matter? I told you, I don't doubt you exist in some parallel timeline so there's no problem! I'm not crazy and I'm telling the truth." Then he stopped. "Oh I'm sorry about your parents by the way, I was pretty insensitive bringing up that whole thing, if I had known I'd never have done it."

"I thought..." she searched in vain for her handkerchief, Marco offered his from his pant pocket (which he knew it had to be a dream now because earlier in the dream it had been used to bandage up the Star Nutcracker. So it should not be in his pocket, what was this the Polar Express?) "I'm glad I exist, I'm glad you're not crazy and telling the truth, but if you are telling the truth it still doesn't give me my truth."

"What?" It was becoming a common phrase on their trip.

"Why do you think I asked you how we met and believed you, if I was not suffering from some sort of need for answers?" She sat down again. Too overcome with swirling emotion to stand too long without getting dizzy.

Marco sat down too, trying to piece things together, but as aforesaid. He's an idiot.

"I can't remember much of anything from the beginning of last year all the way up to the Summer. The Regency council ruled for me because they told me I was in a comatose state." It occurred to Marco now that yes, she was ruling, if not the entire seven years than perhaps at least close to two of them. "I thought maybe they were lying and had sent me to be an exchange student. Like you said. But brought me home again and erased my memory because..." she looked at her lap.

"Because why?" Marco knew this Star had not been on earth with him per se, but it was a conundrum as to why she had amnesia.

She barely looked up at him and spoke softly.

"Because I fell in love with you?"

* * *

 Marco tried to speak, he tried, he failed. His mind swirled into something very colorful but very confusing with a soundtrack of something sounding suspiciously like a waltz.

"Wha-a-a-I-I-I..." Nope, no words.

"Is it really so impossible? Are you really that blind? If you are, well I envied your Star, but I feel sorry for her now."

"Na-n-n-n-No." he finally got out. "I mean, that just, it doesn't, she doesn't. Why?" He was enunciating but it wasn't making much sense.

"Look, you know how I didn't tell you how you broke the curse? I bet you thought I didn't know right?"

Marco choked on his spit but finally let out a complete and cognitive sentence. "No, I knew you just didn't want to tell me, my Star" he coughed on the ludicrous undertone to such a phrase suddenly shining through "I mean, other Star does it all the time."

"Well, I do know. And that's why I thought, well I mean there has to be something because it wouldn't work any other way." She said in a voice that conveyed her distress.

"You're not making sense." Complained Marco.

"I'm making more sense than you." She replied with aggravation. "Marco, look at it like you did when you realized you were dreaming. Take in all the reasons. What is your relationship with your Star exactly?"

Was it a trick question? Marco tried to do as she asked, even though it was weird now to be asked by a variation of Star, what exactly he felt about Star. It was almost the second closest thing to talking to Star herself about such a thing and it made his stomach turn finally on the ship. There's no such thing as river sickness though, so he ignored it and focused on the task at hand.

"Well, we're best friends, I mean we hug a lot and are a lot physically closer than most best friends I guess, but Star is like that. I'd think you'd know, hugs are her thing."

"Yeah but if she is anything like me she still has to be comfortable with the person before hugging them. And even then, I don't hug really often unless I'm really close to the person. Alternate timeline or not I don't think I would change that much."

"Still she has a crush on Oskar, she said so herself lots of times, like at that sleepover when we played truth or consequences..." Marco went pale. "We never did figure out who lied, and she said... but if she knew then and I? Oh no."

Star Nutterfly raised her eyebrow in triumph.

"And her journal that whole ' _Thoughts on Marco_ '... she didn't want me to see it..." he got up and began to pace around again.

"I'm going to say there's more there than you noticed before?"

Marco still saw memories flying in and out, not just more recently but farther back. The Blood Moon Ball especially stuck out like a big warning sign. Though many other smaller instances flooded his mind as well.

"I ask because well... when you thought I was her. After the fight when I gave you the crowns. Then you broke the curse." She began tentatively.

"I still don't understand what the curse was about." Said Marco coming out of his stupor.

"It's about love." She finally said.

Marco tried to nod in understanding but the way he was trembling slightly with this overload indicated he needed more information to go on.

"Not friend love, not bestie love. I know, I tried that and it didn't work." She looked away lost in a memory. "Not family love either, or else it would have worked when my parents were alive."

"Wait how long had you been under the curse?" Marco asked, maybe trying to divert the subject slightly. He was terrified of the concepts before him. So sue him.

"I guess I was about three weeks old?" She thought about it, then nodded in agreement with herself.

"Wow really? That's terrible." Marco couldn't imagine why anyone would want to put a curse on baby Star, or Star in general of course.

"Eh, I got used to it, it wasn't that bad actually, it got really handy recently when receiving suitors, it was super easy to tell if they actually liked me for me or for my crown. The crown won twelve out of twelve times. Actually I'm going to miss it for that, but I always figured that when it was lifted then the one who lifted it would be..." she sighed. "Well anyway, don't try to get me off topic Marco. There was only one kind of love that could break that curse and you should know what it is."

Marco sighed too. "True Love?" It was a hard thing to take in.

"True Love breaks the curse Marco, true love that looks past outward appearance, true love that puts the other person first, and yes, true love in a romantic sense."

"But I-" he faltered "I- I guess it, I guess it is possible."

"You love her." Star said simply.

"I love her." Marco replied just as simply. Letting the fact sweep over him.

"You better tell her then." 


	5. Happily Ever After..?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is my O. C. Star Nutterfly, she looks a little bit like Star Butterfly but she's not. Original Character Do Not Steal. 

"But, I can't, I mean she can't, I mean I'm just... and she's a princess and magic and she needs to have a prince or something right?" It was only a few moments later and Marco was still panicking on the deck of the ship. Star was moping on the side bench, feeling jealous for a variation of her she'd never met, but still trying to talk some sense into this boy. The boat trip had been long and was soon to reach shore. The sun rose higher in the sky with each passing minute.

"Where'd you get a silly idea like that?" She asked. It really did strike her odd.

"Isn't that how it's always been? The heir to the throne has to marry a prince or someone of nobility or something?" Marco tried to give an example, but Prince William wouldn't work and his mind was drawing a blank.

"Wait, you think my dad was a prince?" If she wasn't feeling sour, she would have laughed.

"At the family reunion, I just thought, I mean the Johanssons kept calling themselves ' _royal_ - _blooded warriors_ '." They hadn't seemed very royal, but he was certainly not going to argue with any Johansson.

"Marco, I'm the ' _royal-blood_ '! They consider the whole family that now, because I'm a Johansson. Didn't your Star explain that to you? Well probably she thought she didn't have to. But no, my dad doesn't have any royal blood in him, and neither does his ancestors. Mom didn't marry him because of that, she married for love."

"And you'll be able to marry for love also?" Asked Marco, though the idea of marriage was a little much at the present, in the end it didn't sound half so bad when he thought of it.

"No I won't, not anymore " Star said with a rueful sigh "but your Star will. And if you survived a Johansson-Butterfly family reunion then you should make a pretty good king."

"Yeah, I survived, it was a lot of fun actually." Marco smiled with the memory.

Star frowned. "Even Flags?"

"Especially Flags. We won, well you were talking to your mom so I won for both of us."

There was a silence. As Star sat in shock for a moment.

Good grief he was perfect for the job.

"She's a lucky girl." She said softly, wistfully.

"Star..." Marco began but had no idea what he could say.

"She's got parents, a lot less responsibility, a change of scenery... you." She looked at him but she also looked seemingly right through him. "I like my life, I really do, being queen is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It's just lonely. I can't see my friends as much anymore. The rest of my family just fights. That's why I have to get away so much."

Marco could imagine that, marble halls that were empty. Void of family and friends and life.

"They want me to find a suitor now. Not like to marry immediately or anything I'm way too young. But he'd be my betrothed, live in the palace and just kinda hang out, get used to having a life together. The idea sounds nice, but the contenders..." she trailed off. Focusing back on him. "They're not like you. I wish I had my own Marco."

Marco ruminated. Maybe he could see clearer now that one huge revelation was finally found out inside his mind. He put three and four together, and quickly found the seventh heaven.

"You might." He said with a smile. Star looked at him with confusion and yet, hope.

"All Ashore!" Cried Reggie from his upper deck. The boat had docked to its destination.

* * *

The duo entered the palace doors to procession of cheerful music being played by the court band. Someone had been on the watch for the queen's return, and prepared accordingly. The glorious sound echoing off cold marble along with cheery sunlight from the morning outside, shining gaily through the windows. It was splendiferous.

However, the regency council gasped widely when they greeted them. Not because of Star either, obviously.

Miss Painous, Star's aunt twice removed (I'm not sure how either so please don't ask me) almost growled with rage and angrily accused the guards.

"How did he escape?"

Marco had explained it all to Star on the walk from the river to the palace.

The gaps in her memory, her mistrust of the regency council, and the fact that she knew oddly about Spanish and the words to popular movie soundtrack hits. Maybe just maybe, they were hiding something from her. Or more importantly, someone.

Turns out he had been right.

* * *

Within the hour, the regency council had been called down from their leadership. Star's memories had been returned to her. And a trip to the dungeons revealed a certain very familiar looking boy. One which looked oddly at Star for a moment before realizing she was no longer a nutcracker and recognizing her, then pulled her into a hug like he'd never let go and both cried into each other's shoulders for quite a while.

Marco had always wondered what his handshake felt like to other people, it was quite interesting to find out. He did not however, like the sound of his own voice.

"Do we really sound like that?" Both Marco Diaz and Marco Riaz asked simultaneously of Star.

She nodded.

"I'm still confused," Diaz asked over their midday Christmas celebratory feast. "If you two knew each other all those months ago, why was I the one to break the curse? Shouldn't Marco have done it? Considering he's your true love Star?"

Star's spoon dropped into her pudding. Her cheeks burned. With the return of her memories came the full on return of unrequited feelings. Her Marco had no idea why he had been locked up, he certainly didn't know it was because she was in love with him. She had used the excuse of the regency council wanting to keep their full control over her, which was partially true, since Marco was encouraging her to break free from their grasp of power. However, despite convincing Marco Diaz of his feelings for his Star, she was terrified of discussing the subject with her own Marco Riaz. For though they had been great friends, she knew that was where it had ended for him.

Meanwhile Marco Riaz tried to enunciate something that sounded like "Wha-a-a-I-I-I..." Nope, no words.

Marco looked his counterpart in the eye, "Come on man, look at it from all sides, you can't tell me whatever you were thinking during the Blood Moon Ball was platonic."

"Marco!" Protested Star to the Diaz variation. Trying desperately to smooth over the questions. "What are you talking about? The Blood Moon Ball isn't for another three months!"

"Oh..." Marco noted the awkward scene at the table. "Sorry..." but as he watched the blushing pair try to talk it out between them, a long conversation that would probably not end that day, he smiled. It was quite the beginning.

" _Have you finally learned your lesson?_ " A familiar voice asked.

* * *

  _Marco opened his eyes with a start. A laser puppy had jumped on his stomach, and a few others joined on his chest, licking his face with joy._

_They had gone to bed with Star the night before so that meant..._

_Star Butterfly was standing in the doorway. Smiling, laughing at the puppy antics._

_"Have you finally learned your lesson?" She was asking._

_Marco's eyes widened. Did she know about the dream?_

_"About what? He asked tentatively. Fearfully. Sitting up and fending the puppies off, unsuccessfully._

_"The toilet seat, you left it up again, so I sent the puppies after you. Now you shall feel my wrath in puppy licks!" She was laughing heartily and raising up her arms to add dramatic effect._

_He could only smile, completely smitten, at the sight._

_"Yes Star, I think I learned my lesson."_

* * *

Janna, the daughter of the wise lady, did have a perfect idea of what might be done.

She led the newly physically altered Nutcracker Marco and Captain Haverdin out the palace doors.

"Okay Cap, move aside the bushes." She ordered of Haverdin as they stood in the woods beside the palace. He complied happily.

There stood a big blue box.

Janna opened the door. Holding a book in her hands that held the odd title of; ' _The Story of the Hard Nut. Starco edition._ '

"Jump inside nut-boy. We're going to do some timeline altering."

* * *

  **** **Fin..?**


End file.
